Tag Archives: radio

I ordered some little UHF transmitters and receivers from suppliers on AliExpress, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon.com, in order to extend my door chimes into areas of my home where I could not hear them. These ridiculously inexpensive units are currently about $1 per transmitter-receiver pair in quantities of five, including shipping, and are available at 315 and 433.92 MHz. Photo 1 shows a transmitter and receiver pair. Connections are power and ground and data in or out.

Photo 1: The 315-MHz transmitter-receiver pair (receiver on left)

The original attempt at a door chime extender modulated the transmit RF with an audio tone and searched for the presence of that tone at the receiver with a narrow audio filter, envelope detector, and threshold detector. This sort of worked, but I started incorporating the same transmitters into another project that interfered, despite the audio filter.

The other project used Arduino Uno R3 computers and Virtual Wire to convey data reliably between transmitters and receivers. Do not expect a simple connection to a serial port to work well. As the other project evolved, I learned enough about the Atmel ATtiny85 processor, a smaller alternative to the Atmel ATmega328 processor in the Arduino Uno R3, to make new and better and very much simpler circuits. That project evolved to come full circle and now serves as a better doorbell extender. The transmitters self identify, so a second transmit unit now also notifies me when the postman opens the mailbox.

Note the requirement for Virtual Wire. Do not expect a simple connection to a serial port to work very well.

Transmitter

Figure 1 shows the basic transmitter circuit, and Photo 2 shows the prototype transmitter. There is only the ATtiny85 CPU and a transmitter board. The ATtiny85 only has eight pins with two dedicated to power and one to the Reset input.

Figure 1: Simple transmitter schematic

One digital output powers the transmitter and a second digital output provides data to the transmitter. The remaining three pins are available to serve as inputs. One serves to configure and control the unit as a mailbox alarm, and the other two set the identification message the transmitter sends to enable the receiver to discriminate among a group of such transmitters.

Photo 2: The 315-MHz transmitter and ATtiny85 CPU

When input pin 3 is high at power-up, the unit enters mailbox alarm mode. In mailbox alarm mode, the input pins 2 and 7 serve as binary identification bits to define the value of the single numeric character that the transmitter sends, and the input pin 3 serves as the interrupt input. Whenever input pin 3 transitions from high-to-low or low-to-high, the ATtiny85 CPU wakes from SLEEP_MODE_PWR_DOWN, makes a single transmission, and goes back to sleep. The current mailbox sensor is a tilt switch mounted to the door of the mailbox. The next one will likely be a reed relay, so only a magnet will need to move.

When in SLEEP_MODE_PWR_DOWN, the whole circuit draws under 0.5 µA. I expect long life from the three AAA batteries if they can withstand heat, cold, and moisture. I can program the ATtiny to pull the identification inputs high, but each binary identification pin then draws about 100 µA when pulled low. In contrast, the 20- or 22-MΩ pull-up resistors I use as pull-ups each draw only a small fraction of a microampere when pulled low.

When input pin 3 is low at power-up, the unit enters doorbell extender alarm mode. In doorbell extender alarm mode, the input pins 2 and 7 again serve as binary identification bits to define the value of the single numeric character that the transmitter sends; but in doorbell extender mode, the unit repetitively transmits the identification character whenever power from the door chimes remains applied.

Receiver

Figure 2 shows the basic receiver circuit, and Photo3 shows the prototype receiver. There is only the ATtiny85 CPU with a 78L05 voltage regulator and a receiver board.

Figure 2: Simple receiver schematic

The receiver output feeds the input at pin 5. The Virtual Wire software decodes and presents the received character. Software in the CPU sends tone pulses to a loudspeaker that convey the value of the identification code received, so I can tell the difference between the door chime and the mailbox signals. Current software changes both the number of beep tones and their audible frequency to indicate the identity of the transmit source.

Note that these receivers are annoyingly sensitive to power supply ripple, so receiver power must either come from a filtered and regulated supply or from batteries.

Photo 4 shows the complete receiver with the loudspeaker.

Photo 4: Receiver with antenna connections and a loudspeaker

Link Margin

A few inches of wire for an antenna will reach anywhere in my small basement. To improve transmission distance from the mailbox at the street to the receiver in my basement, I added a simple half-wave dipole antenna to both transmitter and receiver. Construction is with insulated magnet wire so I can twist the balanced transmission line portion as in Photo 5. I bring the transmission line out through an existing hole in my metal mailbox and staple the vertical dipole to the wooden mail post. My next mailbox will not be metal.

I don’t have long term bad weather data to show this will continue to work through heavy ice and snow, but my mailman sees me respond promptly so far.

Operating Mode Differences

The mailbox unit must operate at minimum battery drain, and it does this very well. The doorbell extender operates continuously when the AC door chime applies power. In order to complete a full message no matter how short a time someone presses the doorbell push button, I rectify the AC and store charge in a relatively large electrolytic capacitor to enable sufficient transmission time.

Photo 6: New PCBs for receive and transmit

Availability

This unit is fairly simple to fabricate and program your self, but if there is demand, my friend Lee Johnson will make and sell boards with pre-programmed ATtiny85 CPUs. (Lee Johnson, NØVI, will have information on his website if we develop this project into a product: www.citrus-electronics.com.) We will socket the CPU so you can replace it to change the program. The new transmitter and receiver printed circuit boards appear in Photo 6.

Dr. Sam Green (WØPCE) is a retired aerospace engineer living in Saint Louis, MO. He holds degrees in Electronic Engineering from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana. Sam specialized in free space and fiber optical data communications and photonics. He became KN9KEQ and K9KEQ in 1957, while a high school freshman in Skokie, IL, where he was a Skokie Six Meter Indian. Sam held a Technician class license for 36 years before finally upgrading to Amateur Extra Class in 1993. He is a member of ARRL, a member of the Boeing Employees Amateur Radio Society (BEARS), a member of the Saint Louis QRP Society (SLQS), and breakfasts with the Saint Louis Area Microwave Society (SLAMS). Sam is a Registered Professional Engineer in Missouri and a life senior member of IEEE. Sam is listed as inventor on 18 patents.

The new Multi-Use Radio Service (Mini-MURS) NiM1B-154.570-5-12.5-MURS is a frequency-programmable narrow band transceiver that offers a low-power, reliable data link in a Lemos /Radiometrix transceiver standard pinout and footprint. It’s suitable for licensed and unlicensed VHF allocations, FCC part 90 and part 95.

In Circuit Cellar’s February issue, the Consummate Engineer column launches a multi-part series on wireless data links.

“Over the last two decades, wireless data communication devices have been entering the realm of embedded control,” columnist George Novacek says in Part 1 of the series. “The technology to produce reasonably priced, reliable, wireless data links is now available off the shelf and no longer requires specialized knowledge, experience, and exotic, expensive test equipment. Nevertheless, to use wireless devices effectively, an engineer should understand the principles involved.”

Part 1 focuses on radio communications, in particular low-power, data-carrying wireless links used in control systems.

“Even with this limitation, it is a vast subject, the surface of which can merely be scratched,” Novacek says. “Today, we can purchase ready-made, low-power, reliable radio interface modules with excellent performance for an incredibly low price. These devices were originally developed for noncritical applications (e.g., garage door openers, security systems, keyless entry, etc.). Now they are making inroads into control systems, mostly for remote sensing and computer network data exchange. Wireless devices are already present in safety-related systems (e.g., remote tire pressure monitoring), to say nothing about their bigger and older siblings in remote control of space and military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).”

Here is an article excerpt about bandwidth and achieving its ideal, rectangular shape:

“The bandwidth affects receiver selectivity and/or a transmitter output spectral purity. The selectivity is the ability of a radio receiver to reject all but the desired signal. Narrowing the bandwidth makes it possible to place more transmitters within the available frequency band. It also lowers the received noise level and increases the selectivity due to its higher Q. On the other hand, transmission of every signal but a non-modulated, pure sinusoid carrier—which, therefore, contains no information—requires a certain minimum bandwidth. The required bandwidth is determined by the type of modulation and the maximum modulating frequency.

“For example, AM radios carry maximum 5-kHz audio and, consequently, need 10-kHz bandwidth to accommodate the carrier with its two 5-kHz sidebands. Therefore, AM broadcast stations have to be spaced a minimum of 20 kHz apart. However, narrowing the bandwidth will lead to the loss of parts of the transmitted information. In a data-carrying systems, it will cause a gradual increase of the bit error rate (BER) until the data becomes useless. At that point, the bandwidth must be increased or the baud rate must be decreased to maintain reliable communications.

“An ideal bandwidth would have a shape of a rectangle, as shown in Figure 1 by the blue trace. Achieving this to a high degree with LC circuits can get quite complicated, but ceramic resonators used in modern receivers can deliver excellent, near ideal results.”

Figure 1: This is the frequency response and bandwidth of a parallel resonant LC circuit. A series circuit graph would be inverted.

To learn more about control-system wireless links, check out the February issue now available for membership download or single-issue purchase. Part 2 in Novacek’s series discusses transmitters and antennas and will appear in our March issue.

The industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands are radio frequency ranges freely available for industrial, scientific and medical applications, although there are also many devices aimed at private users that operate in these bands. ISM devices require only general type approval and no individual testing.

The radio communication sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITUR) defines the ISM bands at an international level. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth operate in ISM bands, as do many radio headphones and remote cameras, although these are not usually described as ISM devices. These devices are responsible for considerable radio communications interference (especially at 433 MHz and at 2.4 GHz).

ITU-R defines the following bands, not all of which are available in every country:

6.765 to 6.795 MHz

13.553 to 13.567 MHz

26.957 to 27.283 MHz

40.66 to 40.70 MHz

433.05 to 434.79 MHz

902 to 928 MHz

2.400 to 2.500 GHz

5.725 to 5.875 GHz

24 to 24.25 GHz

Some countries allocate further ISM bands in addition to those above. ISM applications have the lowest priority within any given band. Many bands available for ISM are shared with other spectrum users: for example the 433 MHz ISM band is shared with 70 cm amateur radio communications.

ISM users must not interfere with other users, but must be able to tolerate the interference to their own communications caused by higher-priority users in the same band. The band from 868 MHz to 870 MHz is often mistakenly characterized as an ISM band. It is nevertheless available to short-range radio devices, such as RFID tags, remote switches, remote alarm systems, and radio modules.

Product Information: The WiPry-Spectrum transforms an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod into a 2.4-GHz spectrum analyzer. It is the first 2.4-GHz industrial, science, and medical (ISM) band spectrum analyzer designed specifically for the iPhone, the iPad, and the iPod. The analyzer is simple and intuitive to use. It enables you to “pry” into your wireless environment to detect and avoid noisy channels. The WiPry-Spectrum has a 2.4-to-2.495-GHz frequency range and is compatible with Lightning and 30-pin connectors (with an adapter, it works with the iPhone 5, the iPad mini, and the iPad 4). The WiPry-Spectrum analyzer costs $99.97. For more information, visit www.oscium.com/products/wipry-spectrum-spectrum-analyzer.

The Great Plains Super Launch (GPSL) is an annual gathering of Amateur Radio high-altitude ballooning enthusiasts from the United States and Canada. The 2012 event was held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 7th to the 9th and was sponsored by Circuit Cellar and Elektor. Around 40 people from nine states and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan attended Friday’s conference and around 60 attended the balloon launches on Saturday.

Amateur Radio high-altitude ballooning (ARHAB) involves the launching, tracking, and recovery of balloon-borne scientific and electronic equipment. The Amateur Radio portion of ARHAB is used for transmitting and receiving location and other data from the balloon to chase teams on the ground. The balloon is usually a large latex weather balloon, though other types such as polyethylene can also be used. A GPS unit in the balloon payload calculates the location, course, speed, and altitude in real time, while other electronics, usually custom-built, handle conversion of the digital data into radio signals. These signals are then converted back to data by the chase teams’ receivers and computers. The balloon rises at about 1000 feet per minute until the balloon pops (if it’s latex) or a device releases the lifting gas (if it’s PE). Maximum altitudes are around 100,000 feet and the flight typically takes two to three hours.

Prepping for the launch – Photo courtesy of Mark Conner

On Thursday the 7th, the GPSL attendees visited the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, about 20 minutes southwest of Omaha. The museum features a large number of Cold War aircraft housed in two huge hangars, along with artifacts, interactive exhibits, and special events. The premiere aircraft exhibit is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird suspended from the ceiling in the museum’s atrium. A guided tour was provided by one of the museum’s volunteers and greatly enjoyed by all.

Friday featured the conference portion of the Super Launch. Presentations were given on stabilization techniques for in-flight video recordings, use of ballooning projects in education research, lightweight transmitters for tracking the balloon’s flight, and compressed gas safety. Bill Brown showed highlights from his years of involvement in ARHAB dating back to his first flights in 1987. The Edge of Space Sciences team presented on a May launch from Coors Field in Denver for “Weather and Science Day” prior to an afternoon Colorado Rockies game. Several thousand students witnessed the launch, which required meticulous planning and preparation.

EOSS ready for launch – Photo courtesy of Mark Conner

Saturday featured the launch of five balloons from a nearby high school early that morning. While the winds became gusty for the last two launches, all of the flights were successfully released into a brilliant sunny June sky. All five of the flights were recovered without damage in the corn and soybean fields of western Iowa between 10 and 25 miles from launch. The SABRE team from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan took the high flight award, reaching over 111,000 ft during their three-hour flight.

The view from one of the balloons. Image credit: “Project Traveler / Zack Clobes”.

The 2013 GPSL will be held in Pella, Iowa, on June 13-15. Watch the website superlaunch.org for additional information as the date approaches.

Want to give your MP3 player vintage tube sound? You can with the proper circuits, an antique radio, and a little know-how. In addition to generating amazing sound, the design will be an eye catcher in your home or office.

Here I present excerpts from Bill Reeve’s article, “Repurposing Antique Radios as Tube Amplifiers,” in which he provides vintage radio resources, simple circuit diagrams, and essential part info. He also covers the topics of external audio mixing and audio switching. The article appeared in the May 2012 edition of audioXpress magazine.

Manufactured from the 1930s through the 1960s, vacuum tube radios often contain high-quality audio amplifiers at the end of their RF signal chain. You can repurpose these radios into vintage, low-power tube amplifiers—without marring them in any way or detracting from their original charm and functionality as working analog radios.

Wood-cased radios have especially good sound quality, and the battery compartments in antique “portable” radios (like the Philco 48-360 or the Zenith Transoceanics) provide perfect locations for additional circuitry. When restored properly, large furniture-style radios that were built for “high fidelity” (like the late 1930s and early 1940s Philco console radios) can fill a room with rich beautiful sound.

Simple Circuits

The simple circuits described in this article perform two functions. They mix an external line-level stereo signal (typically from an MP3 player or computer) and reference it to the radio’s circuit. They also use the radio’s on/off knob to switch this external signal to the radio’s audio amplifier.

There is not one circuit that will work for every antique radio. (Original schematics for antique tube radios are available on the web www.justradios.com). But the circuits described here can be adapted to any radio topology. All the parts can be ordered from an electronics supplier like Digi-Key, and the circuit can be soldered on a prototyping printed circuit board (such as RadioShack P/N 276-168B).

External audio mixing

Figure 1 and Figure 2 show some examples of circuit schematics that mix the line-level stereo audio signals together (almost all tube radios are monophonic), while providing galvanic isolation from high voltages within the radio. Figure 1 shows an inexpensive solution suitable for most table-top radios.

These radios have relatively small speakers that are unable to reproduce deep bass, so an inexpensive audio transformer (available from on-line distributors) does the job. I picked up a bucket of Tamura TY-300PR transformers for $0.50 each at an electronics surplus store, and similar transformers are commercially available. Alternatively, the Hammond 560G shown in Figure 2 is an expensive, highquality audio transformer suitable to high-fidelity radios (like the furniture-sized Philco consoles). A less expensive (and fine-sounding) alternative is the Hammond 148A.

I use Belden 9154 twisted, shielded audio cable for wiring internal to the radio, but twisted, 24-gauge wire will work well. An 8′ long audio cable with a 3.5-mm stereo jack on each end can be cut in half to make input cables for two radios, or you can use the cord from trashed ear-buds. You can route the audio cable out the back of the chassis. Photo 1 is a photograph of a 1948 Philco portable tube radio restored and used as an MP3 player amplifier.

After creating the mixed, radio-referenced signal, the next step is to build a circuit that switches the voltage driving the radio’s audio amplifier between its own internal broadcast and the external audio signal.

Figure 3 illustrates this audio routing control using the radio’s existing front panel power knob. Turn the radio on, and it behaves like the old analog radio it was designed to be (after the tubes warm up). However, if you turn the radio off, then on again within a few of seconds, the external audio signal is routed to the radio’s tube amplifier and speaker.

The circuit shown in Figure 3 uses a transformer to create the low voltage used by the switching circuit. There are many alternative power transformers available, and many methods of creating a transformerless power supply. Use your favorite….

The next photos (see Photo 2a and Photo 2b) show our additional circuit mounted in the lower (battery) compartment of a Zenith Transoceanic AM/shortwave receiver. Note the new high-voltage (B+) capacitors (part of the radio’s restoration) attached to a transformer housing with blue tie wraps.

Photo 2a: The inside view of a Zenith Transoceanic AM/shortwave radio restored and augmented as an MP3 audio amplifier. b: This is an outside view of the repurposed Zenith Transoceanic AM/shortwave radio. (Source: B. Reeve, AX 5/12)

The added circuit board that performs the audio re-routing is mounting to a 0.125″ maple plywood base, using screws countersunk from underneath. The plywood is securely screwed to the inside base of the radio housing. Rubber grommets are added wherever cables pass through the radio’s steel frame.—Bill Reeve

Click here to view the entire article. The article is password protected. To access it, “ax” and the author’s last name (no spaces).

CircuitCellar.com and audioXpress are Elektor International Media publications.

Ralph Berres, a television technician in Germany, created an exemplary design space in his house for working on projects relating to his two main technical interests: amateur radio and metrology (the science of measurement). He even builds his own measurement equipment for his bench.

Ralph Berres built this workspace for his radio and metrology projects

“I am a licensed radio amateur with the call sign DF6WU… My hobby is high-frequency and low-frequency metrology,” Berres wrote in his submission.

Amateur radio is popular among Circuit Cellar readers. Countless electrical engineers and technical DIYers I’ve met or worked with during the past few years are amateur radio operators. Some got involved in radio during childhood. Others obtained radio licenses more recently. For instance, Rebecca Yang of Tymkrs.com chronicled the process in late 2011. Check it out: http://youtu.be/9HfmyiHTWZI and http://tymkrs.tumblr.com/.

Do you want to share images of your workspace, hackspace, or “circuit cellar” with the world? Click here to email us your images and workspace info.

With GPS technology and audio radio interfaces on his personal fleet of bikes, Circuit Cellar columnist Ed Nisley’s family can communicate to each other while sending GPS location data via an automatic packet reporting system (APRS) network. In his February 2012 article, Ed describes a project for which he used a KG-UV3D radio interface rigged with SMD capacitors to suppress RF energy. He covers topics such as test-fixture measurements on isolated capacitors and bypassing beyond VHF.

Photo 2 from the Febuary article, "RFI Bypassing (Part 1)." A pair of axial-lead resistors isolate the tracking generator and spectrum analyzer from the components under test. The 47-Ω SMD resistor, standing upright just to the right of the resistor lead junction, forms an almost perfect terminator. (Source: Ed Nisley CC259)

Ed writes:

Repeatable and dependable measurements require a solid test fixture. Although the collection of parts in Photo 2 may look like a kludge, it’s an exemplar of the “ugly construction” technique that’s actually a good way to build RF circuits. “Some Thoughts on Breadboarding,” by Wes Hayword, W7ZOI, gives details and suggestions for constructing RF projects above a solid printed circuit board (PCB) ground plane.

You can read this article now in Circuit Cellar 259. If you aren’t a subscriber, you can purchase a copy of the issue here.